Hey Everyone! Here's the next chapter, thanks for the reviews! I really appreciate them! I'll keep the chapters coming!

Absolute FireFIGHTER ~ Chapter 8

The beginning of May marked the end of the semester for Bridgette. While her father's condition still deeply sickened her, she would spend every second she could by his side. It was the only place she wanted to be. Lt. Johnson however, felt differently although it wasn't his fault. While his wounds continued to heal, the wounds he suffered internally were continually growing.

"Hey." Bridgette said quietly, as she entered the room. She was almost afraid to have said anything, worried about triggering off another snappy attitude from him.

He looked up at her acknowledging that she was there, but didn't say a word. His room had filled up quickly with balloons, flowers, cards and even a teddy bear dressed as a fireman. Bridgette grabbed it off the ledge and sat down on the bed with it in her lap, "Face scan tommorrow?"

"I guess." He mumbled.

Bridgette sighed, "Yes or no?"

He shot his daughter an angry glance, "Just leave me alone."

"What did I do?!" she exclaimed.

"Bridge I just wanna be alone!" he ordered.

"Ok....." she trailed off, standing up and putting the bear back. Walking out of the room, her mind filled up with thoughts. She would have felt stupid asking him what was wrong, and why he wanted to be alone. She already knew, he was miserable, and there was nothing she could do about it. Asking him what was wrong would just make it worse. Getting closer to the waiting room, she could hear the sound of a distant but familiar voice. Walking in, she couldn't help crack a smile seeing her mother standing with DK, and his wife, who's back was to her. "Brianne Kitson!" Bridgette exclaimed.

Brianne immediately turned around at the sound of Bridgette's voice, "Bridgette Johnson!"

Bridgette rushed over and gave her a huge hug, she hadn't seen her for months, at least 3 months at that.

"Everytime I've been here you weren't!" Brianne smiled, giving her a tight squeeze, "How are you? How's your dad feeling?"

"I'm good, and he's bitchy." she answered.

Brianne let her go and gave her a reasurring grin, "He'll be ok.

Bridgette nodded, "I know."

Ruth then spoke up, "I'm gonna go say goodnight to him then I'm heading home ok sweetie?"

"Watch out." Bridgette warned.

Ruth gave her a sarcastic face, "How long have I been married to him Bridge?"

"Hey, I'm just giving you a heads up." She replied.

Ruth rolled her eyes, and then headed down the hallway, while Brianne continued to fire as many questions at Bridgette as she could about whatever she could come up with. After Ruth left to go home, Bridgette and Brianne continued to catch up, while DK pretended to as interested as he could be to their 'girl talk'.

A few hours later Brianne and DK both fell asleep while they were watching TV, so Bridgette decided to take a walk. She dragged her feet as she headed up the hallway back towards her dad's room. She slowly walked into the dimly lit room, and let out a sigh of relief that he was asleep. She quietly sat down in the chair next to his bed. Resting her head on her hand, she began to doze off.

~*~

Lt. Johnson shouted off orders to DK and Walsh, before walking over towards the wrecked cars. In the blink of an eye he was surrounded by flames, and his focus turned to Alex Taylor who was sitting 10 feet from him.

"Taylor come on! Taylor get down!" he shouted.

Alex looked at him, with an empty expression, "It's too late."

An explosion went off and Lieu found himself on the ground looking up, seeing Alex get further away from him.

"TAYLOR!" he shouted feeling his insides burning, "TAYLOR!"

Her face faded and Bridgette's appeared, "Dad?! Dad!" His eyes shot open and his daughter stood before him saying, "Dad, wake up." His body shook uncontrolably while he was on the verge of hyperventalating , "Dad calm down. It's ok it was just a nightmare." He looked around the room frantically, as Bridgette held his hand. After a few seconds his vision set on her in an angry form. The look on his face scared Bridgette as she continued to stand there not knowing what to do.

"Get out." he demanded, moving his hand from her grip.

"Wha...." Bridgette started.

"GET OUT......NOW!" he shouted, loud enough that Bridgette actually jumped two steps back. Absolutely petrified she left the room as fast as she possibly could. Speeding down the hallway, she passed the waiting room and went straight for the elevator, and down to the first floor. Exiting through the ambulance bay of the ER, she was greeted by the comfortable spring air. Taking a few deep breaths to calm herself down she leaned up against the wall and closed her eyes still slowing her breathing.

The sound of two doors slamming startled her once again, and she opened her eyes to see Davis and Sully walking in her direction.

"Hey there little lady." Sully smiled to her, "What are you doing out here?"

"DK sucked up all the air again, so I had to find another oxygen supply." Bridgette replied sarcastically, trying to hide her anxiety.

Sully let out a grin, "You're just like your old man, you know that?"

"Yeah, I get that a lot," Bridgette replied, finally catching her breath, "So what are you guys up to?"

"Got called in for an assault." Sully replied rolling his eyes, "10 minutes before the end of the shift."

"Fun." Bridgette replied.

"How's your dad kiddo?" Sully asked.

"Getting better." Bridgette replied, although from what she had been seeing, it was only on the outside.

"That's good." Sully grinned, "I'm gonna head in, you need anything, you know the precinct is acrossed the street from the bucket heads."

Bridgette couldn't help letting out a small grin, "Yeah I know. Thanks Sully."

Sully started to head in but Davis stayed, "I'll catch up with you in a minute Sully."

Sully waved him off and continued into the ER.

"So your dad's doing better?" Ty asked, as if he was deaf and didn't just hear what Bridgette had previously said.

She nodded, "Yeah, I mean he's getting there."



"It'll take a little while, but your dad's tough." Davis replied.

"Yeah, I know." Bridgette said.

"Tell him I said, ya know I hope he's feeling better and stuff?" Ty asked.

Bridgette nodded, "Yeah sure."

Ty went to take a step in the direction of the doo,r but stopped and looked around for a minute before saying, "I uh, DK said you were asking about me..."

"Yeah," Bridgette replied, "With...you know everything...I just wanted to see how you were and stuff."

Ty nodded, "I'm doing ok....thanks."

Bridgette gave him a grin, "That's good, and you're welcome."

"I'm gonna, uh head inside before Sully kicks my ass." Davis smiled.

Bridgette smirked, "That would suck."

"Take it easy kid." Davis said, turning and heading inside.

"Yeah you too." Bridgette called, as he passed through the ER doors.

She remained outside, walking around wherever her feet would take her. Just to settle the urge to be outside of the hospital and away from the negativity for more than 5 minutes. Minutes ended up turning into hours while she continued to walk around clearing her head.

"Bridgette?" A voice called from behind where she stood, staring out at the water.

Bridgette turned around to see Brianne walking over to her, "What are you doing out here?"

She shrugged, "Wanted to take a walk."

"Good grief, we woke up and you were no where to be found. Trying to give us a heart attack?" Brianne asked.

"Why would I do that?" Bridgette replied.

Brianne grinned, "Come on back inside your mom's gonna be here any minute."

Bridgette's eyes widened, "Holy crap what time is it?"

"5:30. The sun's gonna come up soon." Brianne answered.

Bridgette shook her head in disbelief, "I didn't know I was out here that long."

"Well apparently you were." Brianne replied putting her arm around her shoulders and walking back towards the ambulance bay with her.

"Guess so." Bridgette said, walking into the next to Brianne, then back up the elevators to the floor where her dad was.

"Sneaking off to see some hot guy or something?" DK smirked.

"Oh yeah, of course." Bridgette replied sarcastically, "You know me."

"What's this about hot guys?" Walsh asked, walking down the hallway towards them.

"Good morning Billy." Brianne smiled.

"Morning," he replied, "So where's the hot guy? Or were you all talking about me again?"

Bridgette rolled her eyes and smiled, "Can you be any more full of yourself?"

"Yeah he could be Jimmy." DK shot.

"True." Bridgette replied, as the elevator doors opened and Ruth appeared.

"Morning honey." she said, reaching them and giving her daughter a hug and a kiss on her forehead, "How is he?"

Bridgette shrugged off the question, "He's....ok."

Ruth raised her eyebrow, "You don't sound too sure."

"No....I am," she lied, "I'm just really tired that's all."

"Well, I'm here now, you can head home." Ruth said, running her hand down her daughter's hair.

"Yeah," Bridgette said quietly, "I'll see you guys later then."

Once she was down the hallway and out of ear shot Ruth looked to DK, "Something happen last night?"

DK shook his head, "Not that I'm aware of, why?"

"I know my daughter, and I know when something's wrong, besides the obvious." Ruth replied.

DK looked from Brianne to Walsh for help then back to Ruth, "I really don't know. I mean I know he's been really moody lately, I think that might be getting to her. I mean she knows that he doesn't mean it, but that's the only thing I can come up with."

"Good morning," Dr. Hanson said walking down the hallway towards them, "Is this the new waiting room?"

Ruth gave him a faint smile, "How are you this morning?"

"I'm doing well, and yourself?" Dr. Hanson asked.

"I'd be doing better if you could give us some good news. We're a little worried about his mood swings." Ruth replied.

Dr. Hanson nodded, "Well that's one thing I'll put on my agenda for today. I'll look into giving him something to start stabilizing his moods. I've definately seen what you're talking about, and I think we might administer an anti-depressant for that."

"Anti-depressant pills?" Ruth asked.

"Yes. Probably Zoloft or Celexa." he answered.

Ruth nodded slowly, "Alright. If that's what will help."

"It will, not right away but it will," Dr. Hanson explained, "We're also doing his face scan today. I wanted to go over that procedure with you as well."

"Alright." Ruth said.

"I know we talked about it briefly before. What we're going to do is take a 3-Dimensional image of his face. Then from there we'll create a clear plastic, which will keep the skin on his face from contracting, and it'll minimize the scarring. He's going to need to keep on his face for about 3 or 4 weeks." Dr. Hanson explained

Ruth nodded, "Okay."



Dr. Hanson replied, "We'll do the scan in about an hour or so, and we'll let you know how it goes."

"Thank you doctor." Ruth smiled.

"Your welcome." Dr. Hanson smiled back.

~*~

"How are you feeling?" Ruth asked walking into his room a shortly after he returned from the face scan. She took an extra second to study the new pressure garment that covered his shoulders and upper body.

He didn't answer, he just layed there staring at the wall looking angry.

"They said everything went ok. They'll have the mask done by tomorrow sometime." Ruth said, still not getting a response from him, "What are you six-years-old? Aren't we a little old to be using the silent treatment?"

"Leave me alone." He said sternly.

Ruth lost her calmness at that point, "You need to stop it. Stop it right now! How do you expect to get yourself better if you just sit here acting like the world's ending?! Go ahead, keep it up. You'll never get better."

Swallowing hard he tried to keep his tears at bay. He felt like his world had ended two months ago when he had gotten blown away by an exploding car. How was she supposed to know how it felt? To feel responsible for the death of a fellow firefighter, and to be a burden to your own family. She had no idea. Neither did Bridgette. They could never understand. It was better if they just left him alone and let him suffer by himself.

Ruth sighed losing all of her patience, "Fine. Be that way dammit." she then stormed out of his room.